Christmas is coming, New Year’s Eve isn’t far behind, and you know what that means? It’s time for PARTIES!!! Christmas parties, office parties, end-of-the-semester parties, your kid’s classroom party, Christmas gatherings with extended family, and the biggest party of the year, New Year’s Eve! And do you know what parties mean? PICTURES! Whether it’s your Aunt Edna pulling out her point-and-shoot for family photos at Christmas dinner, or your BFF taking a million selfies on NYE, there’s a good chance you’re going to end up in a few pictures that make the rounds on social media in the next couple of weeks.

But what if having your picture taken fills you with dread and makes you get the nervous sweats? What if you want to look posed and confidence like the picture on the right, but are terrified you’ll look more awkward and uncomfortable like the picture on the left?

Have no fear, friend! We’ve literally taken courses on how to pose people in flattering poses and we’re going to share with all you ladies (sorry, fellas) 3 quick posing tricks to give you confidence the next time your picture is taken.

These posing tips deal with 3 areas of the body women often consider unflattering in pictures - their necks, their upper arms, and their hips. So scroll down to learn our tips to make your neck double-chin-less, your arms slender, and trick the eye into thinking you’ve dropped a full dress size!

The Neck - “The Turtle” Posing Hack

Ever open up the camera on your phone and look down to realize it’s still on selfie mode? Then you know how unflattering multiple chins can look! If the potential to have a double-chin or saggy neck is something you worry about when you get your picture taken, there’s actually a really easy fix for this.

Before I tell you the fix, though, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. This posing hack is counter-intuitive to what your body will want to do. You see, when we have insecurities about how we’ll look in pictures, our tendency will be to back away from a camera. Someone brings out a camera or pulls out their phone for a group selfie, and we start worrying about how we’ll look in the picture and wish we weren’t getting our picture taken, and then we’ll start pulling our body away from the camera or phone in an attempt to “hide” ourselves.

But here’s the thing, if you pull your face back, you know what happens to the skin on your neck? It bunches up on itself! Even if you have barely anything to be considered a double-chin, pulling your face away from the camera is going to exaggerate that area of your neck. And you’ll end up with exactly what you were trying to avoid!

So instead of backing away, you need to do what we call “the turtle.” Imagine a turtle slowly stretching his neck out to push his face out of his shell. And then, ever so slightly, push your nose and chin towards the camera. Pushing your face toward the camera slightly is going to stretch out your neck and get rid of any extra chins that could potentially show up.

The Upper Arms - The “Elbows Out” Posing Hack

Now not all of us are blessed with Michelle Obama arms and this trick isn’t going to help you have defined biceps. But it will help your upper arms to not appear as large as they could, which is a huge win!

Once again, your fears over how your body will look in the picture could in fact make your fears reality. Just like pulling our face away when we’re uncomfortable in front of the camera, our natural tendency with our arms will be to clamp them down at our sides. Maybe it helps us feel more secure, or maybe it’s our way of forcing ourselves to be as thin as possible? Whatever the reason behind it, holding your upper arms tightly against your body is going to force all the muscle and fat on your upper arm to spread out. Go ahead, try it now. If you hold your arms against you, you’re actually going to make your upper arms appear bigger than they normally are!

Instead, remember our simple trick, “elbows out.” If you’re concerned about how your upper arms look in pictures, when it’s time to pose simply pull your elbows away from your torso. This will allow a slight gap between your upper arm and your torso. By leaving this slight space you give your body definition and avoid flattening out the muscle and fat in your upper arm. Your upper torso will appear slimmer and the upper portion of your arm will look it’s thinnest. Win-win!

The Hips - The “Hip Swivel” Posing Hack

What if I told you that remembering to do our “hip swivel” posing trick in pictures will make you look one dress size smaller than you are? I haven’t actually measured to verify this claim, but I can say our “hip swivel” will trick the eye into thinking your hips are not the widest part of your body.

If you are concerned about how your hips look in pictures, you’ll want to avoid standing squarely facing the camera. Standing with your hips squared with your shoulders, pointing at the camera, is going to showcase the exact width of your hips and make them appear as the widest part of your body. But keeping your hips at an angle is going to give the illusion of a slim bottom half.

Here’s how to pull off our “hip swivel” technique. First, figure out the hip closest to the center of the group in the picture. Next, shift your weight onto that leg, pushing that half of the hip towards your rear. Now bring the other side of your hip slightly towards the camera. Finally, put a slight bend in your front leg, popping the knee and pointing it slightly towards the center of the picture.

So for example, say you're posing for a picture with your office BFF and she’s standing on your right side. You’ll need to shift your weight onto your right hip/leg and push it slightly behind you. Next you’ll bring your left hip slightly forward toward the camera. And finally, you’ll put a bend in your left knee and angle it towards the center of you and your friend.

Ta-Da! Now you're selfie ready!

And there you have it! 3 quick little adjustments you can make the next time you're in front of the camera to tweak any body areas that concern you. But more importantly, these posing hacks will give you confidence in front of the camera, and confidence is the most important tweak you can make in front of the camera!

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